Market Snapshot

If you haven’t noticed by now, most gasoline sold in the United States now contains ethanol. In fact, more than 90% of all gasoline contains up to 10% ethanol. The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has mandated that ethanol usage in fuel increase from nine billion gallons per year in 2008 to just less than 14 billion gallons in 2013.

Is enthusiasm for the automobile fading among today’s youth? It’s an
important question that more and more specialty-equipment veterans are
asking, because the answer holds vast and obvious implications for the
industry’s future.

There is little doubt that motorsports has matured as a mainstream sporting genre in the last five decades, helping to grow the performance aftermarket into a stable, nearly $30-billion industry. Of course, the hope is that both motorsports and the industry will also stay forever young amid this maturation, with fresh new faces rejuvenating the racing scene and manufacturers continuing to revitalize their product lines. So which racing segments are “young” today, and how does the industry engage them?

While the economy continues to influence the tire and wheel markets, the greatest impacts on the industry have resulted from the elimination of the tariffs on Chinese tires, the steady growth of lower rolling resistance tires, advances in technology and the proliferation of Internet research, according to knowledgeable wheel-and-tire pros and media.

Car sales will grow in 2013, but that growth will slow to a single-digit
pace, according to Edmunds.com, which projects 15 million new-car sales
in 2013—a 4% increase over 2012. And while next year’s sales won’t have
as much momentum as recent post-recession years, there is still plenty
of optimism in the auto industry.